Nong Duc Manh of Vietnam named one of the world’s predators of press freedomMay 03,
2010 Regarding Nong Duc Manh, RSF quotes, “The leader of the conservatives, Nong Duc Manh is waging an offensive against the liberal press, bloggers and dissident writers in preparation for the Communist Party of Vietnam’s next congress at the start of 2011. He had about 100 years in jail terms given out to critics in unfair trials in the space of just a few months. The Communist Party’s head since 2001, he waited until the last moment to have the Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly freed on humanitarian grounds in March 2010 after Ly suffered two strokes in his cell. Father Ly was serving an eight-year jail sentence for launching the clandestine magazine Tu do Ngôn luan (Free Expression). The editors of To Quoc, another dissident publication that has been denied a licence, are being harassed by the political police or by thugs in their pay. On orders from Manh, the police are focussing much of their offensive on writers and bloggers who have criticised a bauxite mining project involving a Chinese company. Twenty journalists and netizens are currently detained in Vietnam. At total of 33 years in jail sentence were passed in a single day, 20 January 2010, on dissidents, including the younger blogger Nguyen Tien Trung and the well-known human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh. The heir of a one-party system left by Ho Chi Minh, it is Manh who holds real power, not the prime minister or the president, and it is Manh who orders censorship and arrests in defiance of the international community’s recommendations.” Following is
the 2010 full list
of Predators
of Press Freedom
Vietnam Human Rights Network |